Theater: 'The Play That Goes Wrong' brings chaos to the Colonial Theater

By R. Scott Reedy/For The Patriot Ledger

Wednesday

Oct 31, 2018 at 10:00 AM

Pity the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society. Everything that could go wrong in their production of “The Murder at Haversham Manor” does.

As the play-within-the-play at the heart of the Olivier and Tony Award-winning comedy “The Play That Goes Wrong” – beginning a two-week national tour stop at Boston’s Emerson Colonial Theatre November 7 – that 1920s murder mystery devolves into mayhem as one mishap after another bedevils the performance.

“For us, what’s happening on the stage is a tragedy, which is what makes this show so delightfully funny for audiences,” explained cast member Ned Noyes, who plays Max, by telephone from an Austin, Texas, tour stop last week.

The unplanned “tragedy” includes everything from unscripted malapropisms and missed cues, to sticking doors and collapsing floors, falling set pieces, and a theatrical tsunami of prop problems.

“This is not just farce, it’s a physical comedy on steroids – as if Monty Python and Sherlock Holmes had a baby,” Noyes said. “It’s pure escapist entertainment, all about having a good time.”

Co-written by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields, three members of the U.K.-based Mischief Theatre, the play premiered in 2012 in London, where it continues at the Duchess Theatre in the West End.

Opening on Broadway on April 2, 2017, at the Lyceum Theatre – and scheduled to run there through January 6, 2019 – the show won the 2017 Tony Award for Best Scenic Design of a Play. Noyes was in that company before joining the tour when it opened in September.

“I began as an understudy in the Broadway production, covering five, sometimes six of the male roles. Two months before I left for the tour, I was promoted to the role of Jonathan, the dead body who has trouble staying dead,” Noyes said.

His current character is very much alive, with an abundance of youthful enthusiasm, Noyes said.

“Max is a new member of the University Drama Society. He’s never been in a play before and he doesn’t know all the rules. He repeatedly breaks the fourth wall because he loves interacting with the audience. He’s like a third-grader in a school play, waving at his parents from the stage,” Noyes said.

While Max may be annoying to some, Noyes said he finds him only endearing.

“There is an appealing naivete and real sweetness to Max. He breaks the rules, but he can’t help himself. He isn’t aware that what he is doing is wrong,” Noyes said.

A New York City native and Northwestern University graduate, Noyes made his Broadway debut in the 2014 revival of “You Can’t Take It with You,” which starred James Earl Jones, Elizabeth Ashley and Mark Linn-Baker.

His current co-stars include a set with a mind of its own.

“The biggest challenge for myself and my fellow actors was getting acquainted with the set, as if it were another member of the cast,” he said. “We were very, very fortunate to be able to rehearse on the Broadway set, where we had the benefit of real props and a full tech crew.”

The touring set is “99 percent the same as the one on Broadway,” but with its own distinct personality, Noyes said.

“It is finicky, for sure, and every so often even has a few of its own diva moments. It doesn’t always follow the script. But when something malfunctions, it’s as if the play goes right for a second, instead of wrong,” said Noyes, laughing.